26. Just Sayin'

A few words about the Church in Marseille. It's located in a beautiful historic center of the city, right on the seashore. Same beautiful, dark complexion French people, smiles and kissed on cheeks... All the members of the bishopric spoke great English. We accepted an invitation from Brother Conte to come for dinner after Church.

Church is such a blessing for a stranger in a foreign land like myself. When I am there, I cannot ever doubt God's love. It is bliss amidst terror. Feasting upon His wonderful gifts of love is the sure way to conquer pain. The constant reminder that if there is place for hope, there is no place for fear.

Last night when planning our trip to Church, Steve invited Tom Butler to come along. He is Catholic and normally attends 1-hour long services at the Garmisch Chapel. He politely refused.

"No?" went Stephen, "You don't want to go to 3 hours of Church in French?" :o)

Aug, 15, 2011 - Monday
Scottie is right here by my side. He opened his eyes today and gave me this innocent blank stare. They started waking him up today. His artificial O2 is 35 today. His blood O2 was 94 in the morning, but 98 now. That's great! He still runs a fever - 38.3 C.

Not much going on in my life other than hospital visits. We can visit Scott from 12:30 to 20:30. It's hard to do it in one shot. So, I took a long break today, from 15:00 to 16:30. I can't believe how I crashed into a deep nap on a metal bench in the foyer. This hospital is not visitor friendly either. But I don't care about that, as long as they take good care of Scott.

Yesterday Stephen and I got lucky to talk to Dr.-Professor Papazian. He is the head guy of this ICU department. He spoke great English and was very patient with us. What struck me the most was that he looked like he's been badly burned. His face has patches of different color skin, no eyebrows, his right hand has only stubs in place of his fingers. This is someone who has been through terrible experience in his life. But his world did not crumble down on him. He chose to come out of his own tragedy and keep on going saving other people's lives. This kind of character evokes great emotion and respect in me.

There is also one male nurse here who speaks great English and understands that my hardship partly stems up from not knowing French. So, he speaks to us, whenever he stops by, explaining things which helps incredibly. He said that Scott is a true miracle. He had not seen anyone that sick to start improving so suddenly and positively. He believes that the reason behind it is the fact that Scott's lungs were absolutely clean and healthy before the accident. He never smoked and that alone is thousand times better than any medicine ever invented. Sometimes he sees an x-ray image of a 25-year-old smoker's lungs and it looks as if that person is 95 years old. So sad.

Stop smoking, people!!